Barcelona rule out move for €50 million-rated forward due to economic reasons

Journalist Helena Condis of COPE has exclusively claimed that Barcelona have ruled out a move for Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix as they see this operation extremely ‘unfeasible’ financially.

Felix’s links with Barcelona were renewed in the last couple of days when the player went on to admit that he dreams of playing for Barcelona. The forward, who spent the second half of the 2022-23 season on loan at Chelsea, said that the Blaugrana have always been his first choice and that he would love to play for the team one day.

Only a couple hours before, reports emerged that Barcelona and Atletico Madrid established contacts to discuss the transfer but as it turns out, considering the financial implication of the move, Barcelona have decided to rule out the opportunity.

The contact between the two La Liga teams involving the Portuguese was related to a loan move with a purchase option. At present, Barcelona are in no condition to pay any kind of transfer fee, hence a loan deal with a buy option was seen as the best possible solution.

Interestingly enough, the team from the capital city was also interested in an exchange deal, with the likes of Ferran Torres and Franck Kessie likely to be involved in the transfer.

As far as acquiring Felix is concerned, even if Barcelona sign him on loan, they would have to bear his entire salary apart from covering the loan fee. That means the cost of the operation would go up to €25 million.

So even if Barcelona wanted to sign Felix, financial constraints would have prevented them to go ahead in the first place. Beyond that, the Portuguese ace, whose market value stands at €50 million, was not a priority for manager Xavi Hernandez.

Above all, La Liga made themselves clear to both teams that this transfer cannot go ahead due to the Financial Fair Play situation. So, as things stand, despite the reported formal talks, a move appears to be off the table.

Player valuation in title obtained from transfermarkt.com on date of publication.